Nice interviews with Brandon Rogers and Tom Lynn

First taste of Joe O'Donnell, the new voice of the Aeros. Rogers is smart and well-spoken. Hopefully he's back taking contact pretty soon. We'll need him on the blue line. He sounds so captainy...

Interesting that he mentioned Adrian Foster having a broken foot at the end of the season. I guess that's where he disappeared to. Of course, the irony that he missed the trip to Europe with Brandon and then ended up playing there...

Also, a good interview with Tom Lynn (who, I realize now, I saw several times on Friday and if I'd known, I'd have cornered him and tried to get some Gaby scoop). Also, I have to say, he's not smarmy looking in person like he is in his official Wild photo. They should reshoot him.

Anyway, nice job, Joe!

Off to the Texans game today. Ugh.

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FU Ike (and other stuff)

Hockey news up front:

• Fozzie did get signed with the Red Bulls. A.J. Thelen did not. Ouch! Sorry kid.
  
• Going to buy my pre-season game ticket for the Aeros on Oct. 3 today. I can't imagine they're sold out but I'll cry if they are. Beg, plead, offer to pay double, stand, whatever. I need hockey and I need it as soon as possible.
  
• Wild training camp starts Saturday. I'm excited to get Russo's reports from camp. He's had lots of interesting stuff from the pre-camp skates. Burnsie sure does get my blood pumping. What an exciting player he is. Should have signed him to 20 years or something. Lock that boy up.
  
• My boys are in the Third Place game in the Prospects Tourney. On TV tonight, so I'm pumped. 7 p.m. NHL network against the Red Wings prospects. It goes to a dramatic shootout finish. Wee!
• Joe O'Donnell was hired as the new Aeros voice. He's coming from the Idaho Steelheads in the ECHL and had a blog on their site, which I hope he'll do here as well. Always fun to get a little candid chatter from folks on the inside.
  

Other stuff:

We survived the hurricane. Got power back night before last but the phones are apparently out until October. And of course, we have DSL. So no internet, and as a telecommuter for my real job, that's kind of a problem. I'm totally out of touch. I'm spending LOTS of time at Chick-fil-a eating chicken and using their wifi. Need to find a solution closer to home though. Looks like I might can get free wi-fi from AT&T at Starbucks. The trick is finding one with the lights on. Rawr.

Other than that, I don't have much to complain about. But you know I'll find a way anyway. :)

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Fozzie Lives!

Thanks to Russotan, Claire, who found this nugget: Fozzie is apparently trying out for the Red Bulls in Salzburg.

Here's a badly Bable-translated article that gives the gist.

Update: Here's an English account from the Red Bulls' site...

Salzburg's head coach Pierre Pagé is also taking advantage of the closing games of the pre-season to try out further new players. Yesterday, Sunday, saw the two tryout players Adrian Foster (CAN/forward) and Teemu Kuusisto (FIN/forward) join the team in Copenhagen and they were given the chance to prove themselves today.

Of course, there's no assessment, but it sounds like he didn't score.


On the one hand, I'm glad to know he's somewhere. On the other, I'm pretty disappointed that the Wild weren't willing to make a spot for him. He played his ass off here and while he didn't have a "first round draft pick" quality season, for spending 5 years grappling with injuries and to come back and play the whole season here, that's something special.

Then again, maybe they did offer and he wanted a better deal. Regardless, I hope he finds a soft place to land. Found this article about him on NHL.com yesterday that I hadn't seen before. I'll keep an eye on things in Austria to see if they sign him. What a grind it is for these guys. Sheesh.

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Adrian Foster

Okay, I wouldn't normally do this, but I'm looking at my stats and see that tons of people are searching for Adrian Foster, many from Australia.

So, if you're one of those people... I beg of you, solve the mystery for me and leave me a comment about why you're searching for him!

Even Fozzie himself is lookin' around trying to figure out what the hell is going on...


Update: Come on. I see y'all. Comments are moderated. I won't publish it if you don't want. The curiosity is consuming.

Update 2: Okay fine. You're shy. You're hiding from the law. Whatever. He's in Austria.

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Prospect Watch 2008: Adrian "Milk Carton" Foster

NHL.com sez:

Adrian Foster -- After failing to catch on with the New Jersey Devils, who picked him in the first round in 2001, the 26-year-old finally enjoyed success in his first season in Houston. In 70 games with the Aeros, Foster tallied 15 goals and 23 assists. It marked only the second time that he was able to play more than 50 games in a season.

"He's a smart player," Thompson said. "The biggest thing with Adrian was that he played a full season for the first time in a long time. He's had a whole lot of physical problems. If those are behind him, I think he's got some talent. He has to show what he can do."

Ms. Conduct sez:

Now this is an odd one.

I actually really liked Fozzie last season and thought/hoped the Wild would sign him. He seems to have recovered from the injury-plagued start to his career, having played most of the season in good form. If I recall correctly, his best hockey was in the middle of the season, and he kind of faded at the end, though I attribute that to him not having played a full season in several years. He's obviously got talent, he works hard and seemed to have a good attitude. He made an impression on the ice, and I don't mean just his skates.

But it's strange that he's even on this list. He tried out for the Wild last training camp and got cut. Then the Aeros gave him a tryout and apparently gave him a 1 year contract (though it was never reported or announced). My assumption was that he'd move on to less humid pastures looking for an NHL contract, or maybe to Europe, but then here's TT giving an opinion of him here in the summer as though he's still (or ever was, actually) in the Wild system?

So, I emailed someone in the Aeros front office the other day to see if he could fill me in on Fozzie's status: "To be honest, we don't know where he is or where he's going..."

Well alrighty then!

So, as much as I really like Fozzie, apparently he's gone walkabout! Maybe he's with Elvis, my missing socks, and Voloshenko.

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Twofer Tuesday

Today is one of those marvelous days where I'm home alone and I have a hockey game on the radio and a hockey game on the TV. The only thing better would be if the TV game was in HD, but I'm not complaining.

The Aeros kicked so much butt, I couldn't even keep up with how many pushups I was supposed to do or did. I think I'm one set short, but I'm not gonna sweat it. Hmm, I think I owe a set of crunches, too, for the most recent goal by the Oilers. I'll do those.

Let's see what all went down in the Aeros game (because the Wild are losing... Garon is a damn good goalie):

1. Johnny got into two fights with the same guy. First one, apparently took him down with one punch. Second one, he was messing with Fozzie and Mr. Big Teddy Bear Heart took exception from the bench and gave him a scholarship to the University of John Scott. :) Sounds like he pummeled him for quite a long time. Hopefully his hand is okay. And hopefully someone took video. He's huge and fabulous.
2. The final score was 7-1 after being 0-1 at the end of the first. Talk about coming out swinging. The first three goals came within 3:16 of the start of the second period.
3. Schaefer got hurt pretty badly just about 2 minutes in. Not good. In fact, BAD. But thank the hockey gods, we have Khudobin to call up from Beaumont. Still, you never want your All Star goalie to limp off the ice with the assistance of two other players.
4. Brust, still a bit tender in the groin, filled in and kicked butt. We're so lucky to have such solid goaltending.
5. Fozzie got 4 points on the night (1 goal, 3 assists) and Olvecky got 2 goals, from there it was Clutterbuck, Rosa, Ward, and Irmen... Really? Irmen? Yep. Atta boy.

Exciting game. And makes up for the Wild losing 4-1 (so far). Amazing how the Oilers are up by 3 and still playing like they're down by 3. The announcers are talking about how any time it's gotten physical in this game, the Wild could not hold their own, and if Boogaard isn't coming back anytime soon, they need to get a tough forward on the line. Ayup.

Anyway, the knees are still aching, so I've decided to take it easy on any leg work until the public skate next Monday. There's a post game skate on Friday. I RSVP'd for it but will only skate if I'm having absolutely NO pain in my knees. That ice is gonna be wrecked and bad ice is so much harder on the feet and knees. There's no deadline, so it's okay to take it easy (she tells herself).

I got FIVE hockey books in the mail today. Starting with The Code: The Unwritten Rules of Fighting and Retaliation in the NHL when I hit the sack tonight. Very excited to have lots of good hockey books to read.

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